Thousands pay tribute to detective slain at Big Bear

Feb. 21, 2013

Updated 1:17 p.m.

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A kilted bagpiper, right, begins to play "Amazing Grace" as the casket of San Bernardino sheriff's Detective Jeremiah MacKay approaches. Funeral services for the 35-year-old MacKay, who was killed in the final standoff with fugitive ex-police Officer Christopher Dorner. MacKay was a bagpiper. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A long procession of police cars follows a hearse bringing the body of 35-year-old San Bernardino Detective Jeremiah MacKay from a San Bernardino mortuary to the San Manuel Amphitheater. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Law enforcement officials from as far away as Arizona and Nevada joined thousands of mourners at a funeral service for San Bernardino Detective Jeremiah MacKay at the San Manuel Amphitheatre in San Bernardino on Thursday. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A riderless horse with a backwards boot in a stirrup trails behind the casket of San Bernardino Detective Jeremiah MacKay during his funerals service Thursday. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Alan MacKay, father of Detective Jeremiah MacKay, speaks during his son's funeral. Alan MacKay spoke of his son's fun-loving, kind personality and about his determined and ambitious attitude as a child. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Detective Jeremiah MacKay's casket is carried by law enforcement officials during the start of his funeral service at the San Manuel Amphitheatre in San Bernardino. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Mounted law enforcement officials salute during the funeral services for San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department Detective Jeremiah MacKay. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Bagpipers from several states play on stage during the funeral services for San Bernardino County Detective Jeremiah MacKay on Thursday. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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San Bernardino County sheriff's Capt. Lee Hamblin delivers a eulogy during the funeral service of Jeremiah MacKay. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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A mounted San Bernardino County sheriff's officer watches the funeral service for San Bernardino County Detective Jeremiah MacKay from his horse. ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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John Mongez, 5, watches his candle get lighted in the rain by his mother, Rhiannon Mongez, during a candlelight vigil in honor of fallen San Bernardino County sheriff's Detective Jeremiah MacKay at the Yucaipa Community Center on Tuesday. RACHEL LUNA, AP

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A photo of slain Detective Jeremiah MacKay was displayed at a news conference at the San Bernardino County sheriff's headquarters Feb. 13. KEVIN SULLIVAN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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Dawn MacKay, mother of fallen San Bernardino County sheriff's Detective Jeremiah MacKay, receives condolences from friends at the conclusion of a candlelight vigil in honor of her son at Yucaipa Community Center in Yucaipa on Tuesday. MacKay was killed by fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner on Feb. 12 during a fiery shootout in which Dorner barricaded himself in a cabin near Big Bear. RACHEL LUNA, AP

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A somber woman holds an American flag and candle in the rain during a candlelight vigil in honor of fallen San Bernardino County sheriff's Detective Jeremiah MacKay at the Yucaipa Community Center on Tuesday. RACHEL LUNA, AP

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A photo of slain Detective Jeremiah MacKay is seen after a news conference by San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon at the San Bernardino County sheriff's headquarters Feb. 13. KEVIN SULLIVAN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon addresses the media next to a photo of slain Detective Jeremiah MacKay as Irvine Police Chief David L. Maggard and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck listen, at left, at the San Bernardino County sheriff's headquarters Feb. 13. KEVIN SULLIVAN, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

A kilted bagpiper, right, begins to play "Amazing Grace" as the casket of San Bernardino sheriff's Detective Jeremiah MacKay approaches. Funeral services for the 35-year-old MacKay, who was killed in the final standoff with fugitive ex-police Officer Christopher Dorner. MacKay was a bagpiper.ISAAC ARJONILLA, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Jeremiah MacKay

Born June 4, 1977, at San Bernardino Community Hospital, MacKay was raised with his younger sister, Angela, in Lake Arrowhead, where he attended Mary P. Henck Intermediate School and Rim of the World High School.

MacKay, at age 4, became the youngest person to climb Mount San Gorgonio. He began his career at the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department as a deputy on his 21st birthday. He later worked as a detective in the Twin Peaks and Big Bear stations.

MacKay received five CHP 10851 awards, given to officers who help alleviate car thefts, and three commander's awards during his 15-year career.

SAN BERNARDINO – A line of black-and-white cars topped with silent sirens stretched 15 miles down the San Bernardino highway Thursday morning, following the hearse of the sheriff's deputy authorities say was the last victim of Christopher Dorner.

Detective Jeremiah MacKay, a 15-year San Bernardino County Sheriff's deputy, was shot and killed Feb. 12 when he confronted the fugitive near Big Bear Lake. Police say Dorner shot a newly engaged Irvine couple and killed a Riverside police officer in an ambush before fleeing into the mountains; he died in a furious gunfight with law enforcement officers during which MacKay was shot.

Officers from throughout the state, in blue, green and beige uniforms, joined civilians dressed in black at the San Manuel Amphitheater, nearly filling the 60,000-person venue below the San Bernardino Mountains. Bagpipes could be heard beyond the amphitheater walls.

As the ceremony began around 11:30 a.m., about 100 bagpipers and drummers filled the black stage as MacKay's flag-covered coffin circled the venue, followed by his friends, family and a riderless horse.

"Jeremiah was truly part of our family," said Capt. Lee Hamblin from the Yucaipa station where MacKay last worked. "I referred to him as a cop's cop. He's the guy you always wanted to be your partner."

MacKay, a Lake Arrowhead native, received five CHP awards for assisting with car-theft recoveries and three commander's awards during his career.

"The bravery, heroism and sacrifice will not be forgotten. He truly died so others would not have to."

McMahon also said that MacKay was so much in touch with his Scottish heritage that he was a key player in assimilating bagpipes into the San Bernardino Honor Guard, which he was a part of.

"Jeremiah made his uniform, his uniform did not make him," McMahon said. "He had the laugh of someone who truly enjoyed life."

He said that the day before his death, MacKay spent the entire day with his 4-month-old son Cayden and stepdaughter Kaitlyn, whom he recently taught how to ride a bike and tie her shoes.

Cameras regularly panned to the children and MacKay's widow, Lynette, sitting in the front row with other family members, including his father, Alan, and mother, Dawn.

Roger Loftis, MacKay's best man at his wedding in November 2010, came onstage with two sheepdogs. He explained that MacKay identified with sheepdogs because good people, like sheep, need protection from bad people.

"Everything he did, he did at Volume 12," Loftis said. "Unless he was drinking, then he went to volume 14."

The first sound of laughter was heard among the morning audience.

Loftis said that MacKay told him that he would find Dorner.

"And he did, but we paid a hell of a price," he said.

Alan MacKay, dressed in traditional Scottish formal wear, came on the stage to talk about his son as a child, who at the age of 4 climbed the highest peak in Southern California, Mt. San Gorgonio, with his parents.

"When he did things, he did it full speed ahead," he said. "We found out rather fast that he was an adrenaline junkie."

Before becoming a sheriff's deputy, MacKay channeled his love of snow sports into a short-lived career as a ski-and-snowboard instructor. Before leaving the job, he taught the Olsen twins how to ski, Alan MacKay said.

"He was really proud of that," Alan MacKay said.

He went to EMT school, and thought he would follow in his father's footsteps and become a firefighter. But after some training, Alan MacKay said, his son found the job too boring and wanted to become a sheriff's deputy.

Which he did, becoming one of the youngest sheriff's deputies to be hired out of the academy, on his 21st birthday.

"This is not goodbye. It's just, see you later, Jeremiah," his father said in closing.

A short sermon from MacKay's pastor, Rod Akins, began with the Three Dog Night tune "Joy to the World" and flashed images of the young MacKay clutching a baseball mitt or in football attire; his wedding, his children and a picture of his wife and him with a homemade sign reading "I love women who drink beer so much I married one."

Several white doves were released into the air during a closing prayer before the 21-gun salute and a flyover by law enforcement helicopters.

A final radio call was broadcast over the speakers in the amphitheater for MacKay.

"Detective MacKay, may you rest in peace," said the dispatcher. "Control clear."

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